TEN Years Later: The Mānoa Flood Revisited

Before the Kaka`ako campus was built and opened in 2005, The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) was located within the Biomed tower at the University of Hawai`i Mānoa Campus. On Oct. 30, 2004, the lower levels of that tower were hit by a four-foot wall of water from a powerful flood which struck during heavy rains that had over-run the Mānoa Stream.

JABSOM’s students and faculty at the time, along with staff, suffered severe disruption of their work and class lives. Some had to be rescued from the library that evening, when as water as high as eight feet shot through the buildings on that part of campus. Fortunately no serious physical injuries resulted. Emotions, however, still run strong among several JABSOM employees about the disruption to their scientific and research work, the loss of so much personal and work product, and the worry and concern that blanketed them for so many days and weeks during the months following the flood.

The UH Hamilton Library was severely damaged by the flood. This report, embedded above, produced by the UH Media Office, discusses how the library has recovered, and now thrives (thanks to many, many people) one decade later. See the report directly at UH NEWS STORY.